“Overall crime is down by one per cent in the year to September 2015, which bucks the general national trend of increases,” Mr Gibson said.

“Our countywide Operation Nova (say NO to Violence and Abuse) is specifically targeting violent crime and we are confident that our multi-agency efforts in this area will result in returning to a reducing trend for the next period of reporting from the nine per cent increase reported today.

“However, it is important to emphasise that Lincolnshire has one of the lowest recorded rates of violent crime in the country.”

However, Mr Gibson says that Lincolnshire is experiencing an increase in reported sexual offences, but thefts and house burglaries are down.

He added: “A large proportion of this is as a result of the widespread and national publicity about historical sex abuse which is encouraging people to report such crimes more readily than they would have done before.

“We have already made announcements that we are changing our policing model to put more resources into protecting vulnerable people, which includes further investment in child sexual exploitation, on-line grooming, cyber-crime and other emerging crime areas.

“The reductions in thefts and house burglary offences have contributed to the overall reduction in recorded crime in Lincolnshire.”

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